Relationship of pretreatment transurethral resection of the prostate to survival without distant metastases in patients treated with 125I-implantation for localized prostatic cancer

The authors assessed the relationship between transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) and the probability of survival without distant metastases (survival) in patients with clinically localized prostatic cancer. Fifty-eight patients with obstructive voiding symptoms who underwent TURP within 12 months before pelvic lymphadenectomy and 125I-implantation were compared with 131 patients who did not require TURP before implantation. None received other treatment for the tumor. The overall survivals for the two groups were not significantly different, P greater than 0.1. When stratified by tumor grade or the presence or absence of pelvic lymph node metastases, the survivals for the two groups were also similar, P . greater than 0.1. However, survival associated with Stage C tumors was greater in the No TURP than in the TURP group (P . 0.003), and survival associated with Stage C tumors was greater in the TURP than in the No TURP group (P . 0.005). These data fail to provide convincing evidence that transurethral resection of prostatic cancers has an unfavorable impact on disease progression